Come What May and Hell To Pay
by gypsy season
Summary: Wicked Fic: Chronicles the journey of Glinda and Elphaba on their way to the Emerald City (BOOKverse)


Disclaimer: I own none of these characters. They all belong to Gregory Maguire. Oz is the product of L. Frank Baum's imagination, who Maguire must also pay tribute to. I only own my own ideas.

Come What May and Hell To Pay

"Elphaba, I am about to be sick." Glinda complains. Her head is tipped back against the seat, eyes closed as if it might help her visualize herself in another place. The carriage lurched beneath them like a bucking horse - or a Horse being dragged into captivity, Elphaba silently muses - as it tumbled along the bumpy roads.  
  
Elphaba hadn't said much through the trip, although her thoughts run wild. There is so much open space, no ivy covered walls to trap anything inside; the possibilities are unlimited.  
  
Worrying more about the others in the carriage more then Glinda, Elphaba lays her hand down gently on her pale forehead. "You feel fine. Don't complain."  
  
Glinda pulls away. "No, I don't mean sick like that. My stomach is in such a knot, I don't think I can manage much longer."  
  
"Well you're going to have to, unless you'd rather walk."  
  
An impatient moan slips through Glinda's pale lips as she shifts here and there in search of a more comfortable position. "Just sit still." Elphaba warns when she caught sight of glares from other passengers, annoyed by the petite blonde disturbance.  
  
"I just can't get comfortable." Glinda whispers, picking up on the stares as well.  
  
"Comfort isn't what we paid for," The green girl's words penetrate the rich girl's ego and stings. "We're traveling third class, there's nothing we could do."  
  
"Oh yes there is." Glinda shoots a glare at Elphaba, crossing her arms in defiance. She waits for Elphaba to ask her what, for an excuse to talk might take her mind off her churning stomach and pounding head.  
  
When the green girl stays routinely silent, Glinda shuts her eyes and shakes her head. She clicks her tongue against her front teeth impatiently. Finally, the suspense is unbearable, and Glinda sits up, ready to pounce.  
  
"Unless this trip has scrambled my brains, then I do believe both you and I were relatively well-off when it came to money. We can afford much better travel than this!" At her comment, some of the other passengers shift uneasily in their seats. One man looks deeply offended, but Glinda is too caught up with her anger to notice.  
  
Elphaba looks torn between telling the truth or saying something to make Glinda feel better. After a two second consideration, she eliminates the latter of the choices. "Traveling first class would get us recognized. Do you want us to be found out?"  
  
"I didn't even want to come, Miss Elphaba," she fumes, "and I'm sorry that you like to live like a peasant but I don't!"  
  
"You'll be kicked out of Shiz!" Elphaba retorts with a hiss. "If you turn back now, with no excuses whatsoever, do you honestly think you'll have an open-armed welcome? Just what do you plan on saying?"  
  
Galinda squares her jaw, determined not to lose to Elphaba, but in truth she is entirely baffled. She has no idea what she could possibly say if she chose to return. "Going with you was a mistake!"  
  
"Inviting you was a mistake!" Elphaba retorts, and Glinda opens her mouth to argue further. But green eyes narrow into a deadly stare, and the blonde puts up the white flag immediately, sitting back with a "Humph!"  
  
They only speak once more before they stop, and it is Galinda complaining about Elphaba getting the window seat.  
  
---  
  
Getting to the hotel, Glinda feels a sharp stab of sympathy for her roomie; rain ambushes the carriage like an army, and immediately Elphaba jumps awake with new fear. She remains seated as the other passengers mill out of carriage to retrieve their bags from the mud, willing to spend the night inside.  
  
All but one other has left for the inn, and it is Glinda. She holds something in her hands and extends it to Elphaba. "Here," She says softly, forcing her words to sound kind instead of scornful, because she is still mad at her. But she knows of Elphaba's water "troubles" and is not entirely heartless. She holds out her coat.  
  
Elphaba makes sure she is as covered as she can be before jumping out of the carriage as if she is jumping off a cliff. She does not wait for Glinda, who is having trouble in the mud with her heels. By the time the blonde reaches the room, Elphaba is already on her way out.  
  
"We need a different room, this one won't do." She tries to make her words come out matter-of-factly, but she only succeeded in sounding downright terrified. Trapped in a tiny room with seemingly endless leaks letting in excessive amounts of water sounds more like torture then a decent way to spend an evening.  
  
The room is small, with the walls painted a dark gray. Water spills in from cracks in the low ceiling. There is a small cot pushed into one of the corners, covered by a few itchy-looking blankets. "No, this won't do at all," Galinda mutters to herself and tries not to cry.  
  
Elphaba is leaning against the door frame, shivering from pain of wetness and the cold in the air. She watches her roomie struggle with a blanket as she tries to tear it in half. Either she is stronger then she appears, or the blanket is just very weak , but she manages to tear it and stuff the pieces into the leaks near the bed.'  
  
It never occurred to either of them that they would have no blankets left to sleep under until after they were all torn and stuffed into the ceiling. "Galinda, you idiot." Elphaba manages to keep her voice steady. "What will you use as a blanket now?"  
  
Glinda, who has sat down on the bed with a loud creak and moan of springs, looks hurt. "I did this for you, Miss Elphaba. It is you that is terrified of water, not I."  
  
Elphaba winces. "Please drop the formalities, we aren't in school." She says rudely and does not thank the blonde for her efforts. Instead, she waits in the doorway, for her pains to ease; She never likes admitting that she is hurt.  
  
She also fears the stability of the blankets wedged into the ceiling cracks. Used to being let down, she finds it hard to trust this resourceful suggestion.  
  
"I never should have come," Glinda whispers as she climbs onto the bed without even undressing; it is far too cold. She merely slips under the stained, off-white sheet that smelled of mildew and sex, curling up into a ball and wishing for sleep.  
  
To Elphaba, she is a child for that moment; she is just like a small child separated from her mother, or a small animal taken from its home. She herself, having initiated the trip - no, having dragged Glinda along with her - must be the mother, then.  
  
Putting grudges and anger behind her, Elphaba carefully maneuvers across the room and into the bed with Glinda. The small body curls tighter, and she sniffles. "Elphie, what are you doing? I don't approve of-"  
  
"Glinda, shhh. Just go to sleep," She, whispers, slipping under the sheet and trying her hardest to wrap her bony form about Glinda. A green hand moves over a bare, pale forearm in an attempt to speed up circulation and spread heat. "Shut your eyes, sleep."  
  
Glinda shuts her eyes, but finds herself crying almost instantly. Curt, high-pitched whimpers and sobs accompanied by sniffles and reinforcements from her shoulders. Reflexively, Elphaba loosens her hold on her roomie; she has spent so many years unhappy, it's so difficult for her to come up with ways to comfort others if she can't even comfort herself.  
  
"I'm scared," she whimpers, "Elphie, I'm scared. I don't want to be here, I don't want to go to the city." She cries harder. "I want to go back, to Shiz."  
  
"Oh, no you don't, you don't want to go back there." Elphaba says softly, brushing blonde curls out of the blonde's face with one hand, the other massaging calming circles on her back. "You're too good for those empty headed…" Offensive remarks were never were one of Elphaba's specialties.  
  
"Don't say that," Glinda protests weakly. "Just take me back, please."  
  
"Easy, it's alright." Elphaba says, such kind words feeling foreign on her tongue. Each gentle, soothing word left her lips like an immigrant fleeing their country and town for other lands.  
  
Glinda moves in closer to the green girl, who puts her arms back around her crying friend. It does not take long for the blonde to fall asleep, but Elphaba isn't asleep until the next day. 

until the next day.


End file.
